If you don’t have Bavarian style sauerkraut then you’ll need to add more sugar plus caraway seeds to this dish.

Then a bottle of beer. Lager to be exact. Plus the sugar.

Drunken ‘kraut.

Those words just sing to me.

Perhaps it’s the Polish in me :P

After a good stir, cover and let simmer over low for another hour and a half. Stir every half hour or so to make sure the liquid doesn’t get too low.

It may seem like a long time, but if you throw this on the stove right after work it will be the easiest thing ever. And who doesn’t have time for a few minutes of stirring?

After the time is up you will have a pretty colorless pot of food. Don’t let that deter you however, please don’t at all.

In such a short period of time the pork becomes fall apart tender, I’m talking no knife required.

Perhaps it’s the acidity of the sauerkraut or maybe the apple, or perhaps even the beer, but something(s) worked it’s magic – hey, I’m no scientist ;)

The flavor of this dish was spot on – not like anything I’ve ever tasted but SO very delicious.

Served atop some cheesy mashed potatoes I had stashed in the freezer (these were actually leftover pierogi filling from this adventure, I mean, do I think I’m living during the Great Depression? I swear I don’t throw anything away haha).

Yum. Yum. Yum.

The cheesy potatoes soaked up all the glorious beer infused sauce – I can’t even explain how good this was!

And with temperatures well below freezing here in Virginia (not for long though!) this meal definitely warmed me up from the inside out.

Like I said, we’re not talking pretty, colorful food here (hey, a garden salad on the side will fix that real quick!) but we are talking major MAJOR flavor.

I may or may not have called Fanatic Mom while I was eating it to tell her how surprised I was with this dish and talked about it for 5 minutes straight, why does she put up with me? – she can attest to that.

And by the way, I’ve already decided that this will be the dinner to celebrate my belated birthday when my Uncle comes in town (if you’re reading Uncle Donnie, here’s a sneak peak!)…

I have problems – who plans meals 2 weeks in advance?

Me.

Oh yea, what birthday?

This girl’s last birthday in her 20’s falls the day after tomorrow *gasp* can’t even believe it!

And Fanatic Dad’s birthday is tomorrow :)

We have a lil’ something up our sleeves to celebrate later this week too — so stay tuned!

Okay I better stop talking/thinking about/eating this ‘kraut dish and go watch The Bachelor already, have a great night!

I bet this was great. I thought I HATED sauerkraut but we had an Oktoberfest (the man’s idea, he’s somewhat German, I had no clue what I was doing) and everything was SUPERB but we made potato and sauerkraut bites. OHHH lordy were they amazing which surprised the heck out of me! Sometimes it dosen’t have to look so gorgous to taste so amazing.

Yes, I absolutely think it would work in a crockpot! Funny you ask because I was actually going to do that but didn’t get the pork defrosted in time to put into the crockpot that morning – typical :) I would just reduce the amount of liquid you use so you don’t end up with soup, maybe only 1/4 to 1/2 of the beer?